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Ayrudzi Netadzik (Armenian Horse-Archers)
|-|EB1= |-|EB2= EB1: Light horse archers use their composite horse bows to advantage. It is their role to shower the enemy with arrows, to act as skirmishers and stay out of melee save to chase routers. EB2: Expert light cavalry who are well-suited to harrassing enemy formations. Description Armenia, despite its rugged geography, is a land of rich meadows and they are able to support cavalry in great numbers. The horse archers of Armenia tend to fire their volleys while motionless but are very capable of the harassing tactics of the steppe nomads. Indeed, some of these men hail from the Scythians enclaves along the Pontic coast or the grasslands of Atropatene. They are expert archers and expert horsemen, being able to shoot a bow accurately from horseback, and they are the masters of the ‘Parthian shot’, being able to shoot backwards at full gallop. They are best used at weakening enemy formations so that the heavy cavalry can finish them off. Almost impossible to destroy and unwilling to come to grips with well ordered infantry these horsemen use marauder tactics to bring down their enemies. Dense formations of infantry are their favoured target. Historically, they used probably the best weapon for the light horseman, which was the composite horse bow. Plutarch wrote that Armenian archers were deadly from 200 meters with their devastating hail of arrows. These horsemen are not well suited for hand-to-hand combat and best used in their traditional role. If forced into combat they will do poorly against anyone but a broken enemy. --------------------------- Armenia, despite its rugged geography, is a land of rich meadows able to support cavalry in great numbers. The Armenians are expert horsemen but are equally skilled bowmen and hold archery in high esteem. They combine the talent for horse-riding with expert archery and perform the "Parthian shot" with ease. These light mobile horsemen will avoid the well-ordered infantry and are almost impossible to destroy. They are particularly useful in targeting densely packed enemy but should not be ordered to break the infantry formations or to close in with the heavier horsemen. These troops are best deployed to harass and weaken the enemy ranks so that the heavy cavalry can deliver the decisive blow. Historically, Armenian Highland was a home to some of the world@s most renowned mounts. One of the key reasons behind the drive to control the region by the successive regional empires - the Assyrians, Persians and Macedonians - was to secure access to this highly sought after resource. As centuries went by, horses remained one of the region's most valuable assets. However, the presence of good mounts in this rugged region does not provide a full explanation for the development of the cavalry-centred mobile warfare that will become the trademark of Armenians' fighting style. Another contributing factor seems to have been the influence of the neighbouring peoples. In the time of Xenophon's retreat through Armenia, circa 400 BC, the country's northern provinces of Vanand, Sirak and Ayrarat were populated by the Cimmero-Skythian tribal federation. The centre of the federation, Xenophon reports, was the "large and prosperous inhabited city which was called Gymnias". This Gymnias is identified with the ancient Armenian city of Kumayri and is today's Gyumri, the second largest city in Armenia. Perhaps as a result of the close proximity of the Armenians and these steppe peoples, and mutual influences it entailed, the mobile mounted combat of the northern riders becomes an integral part of Armenian warfare. This adaptation was aided by the fact that the horses bred in Armenia at the time, according to Xenophon, were smaller than the Persian breed but more spirited, which made them ideal for the hit and run tactics and mobile missile exchanges. The best preserved and balanced account of the Armenian mounted warfare comes from a Roman author Cassius Dio, who describes Roman encounter with the Armenian mounted archers as follows: "the opposing cavalry gave the Roman cavalry hard work, but none of the foe approached the infantry; indeed, whenever the foot-soldiers of Lucullus assisted the horse, the enemy would turn to flight. Far from suffering any injury, however, they kept shooting back at those pursuing them, killing some instantly and wounding great numbers. Now these wounds were dangerous and hard to heal; for they used double arrow-points and moreover poisoned them, so that the missiles, whether they stuck fast anywhere in the body or even if they were drawn out, would very quickly destroy it, since the second iron point, not being firmly attached, would be left in the wound." Usage These horsemen will form the bulk of Hayasdan's main army of horse archers and cataphracts. These men can wreck havoc upon infantry based factions such as the phalangites of Arche Seleukeia and the Ptolemaioi and defeat light or medium cavalry through focus-firing. The cantabrian cirle formations will great help their fight against archers or other horse archers although once pursued by faster cavalry, they should retreat and turn on auto-fire to enable them to fire their volleys upon their pursuers. In melee however, their powerful swords makes them highly dangerous against both lightly armored missile and light cavalry if given the chance to attack them unexpectedly. Still, they cannot stand a chance in melee combat due to their non-existent armor. In EB2 however, They are now fairly armored and being armed with deadly armor piercing axes makes them even more deadly at attacking isolated units of light missile units or light cavalry; they can even support heavier cavalry against the enemy's heavy cavalry in melee combat. Category:Units Category:Hayasdan Category:Sauromatae